Celestial Map of Constellations, Stars, and Planets

This Demonstration shows a map of the stars, planets, and constellations for any observation point in the world for any day and time up to 20 years in the future. You can choose the maximum apparent magnitude of the stars to show on the map—from 50 to more than 4000 stars. Point to a star to see information and click a star to display its name on the map.

SNAPSHOTS

DETAILS

There can be more than 4000 visible stars with a maximum magnitude of 6.5; therefore generating the map can take a long time—anywhere from 10 seconds up to several minutes, depending on the number of stars.

Once it is done you can switch to lower star magnitudes or back to higher magnitudes very quickly. The map will be generated again only if you change time or location.

Constellation graphs can be displayed for any constellation or groups of constellations. When there are many stars, this may take a long time.

Click stars or planets to display their names permanently on the map; click again to remove. Click a constellation graph to display its brightest star name. Switch all brightest star names on and off with the "show main star names" option.

Snapshot 1: Zodiac constellations

Snapshot 2: white background

Snapshot 3: all constellations (stars with the apparent magnitude of 3.5 and below)